1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus which includes a comparatively small portable image reading device generally known as a handscanner and which is capable of transmitting image signals read by the image reading device to a remote facsimile apparatus or printing out the image represented by the image signals on recording paper.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, facsimile apparatuses are equipped with an image reader internal to the apparatuses. Such conventional facsimile apparatus can only handle single-sheet documents (documents in single-sheet form) but cannot directly handle bound documents such as a book. Therefore, before transmission of bound documents, the documents have to be copied on a copying machine to produce copies that can be handled by the facsimile apparatus, a procedure which is time consuming and troublesome. To overcome such difficulty, recently developed facsimile apparatuses are equipped with a comparatively small portable image reading device generally known as a handscanner. This provides the useful feature that bound documents can be directly read into the facsimile apparatus.
In the handscanner-equipped facsimile apparatus, the image signals of the original documents read by the handscanner are first stored in an image memory internal to the facsimile apparatus. Then, in accordance with the operation performed by the operator, the image signals are transmitted to a remote facsimile apparatus or a duplicate image is printed out on recording paper. In such an apparatus, the handscanner and the facsimile apparatus are electrically interconnected with a cable for transmission of image signals. Therefore, the image reading by the handscanner can only be performed within the range limited by the length of the cable, i.e. within the reach of the cable leading from the facsimile apparatus. For example, when a book is to be read by the handscanner for transmission by the facsimile apparatus, if the book is in a room other than the room where the facsimile apparatus is installed, one has to go to the trouble of taking the book to the room where the facsimile apparatus is installed.
Furthermore, conventional facsimile apparatuses are usually equipped with an image memory for temporarily storing a received image signal, when the recording paper has run out, until the facsimile apparatus is loaded with a new recording paper. The image memory capacity, however, is limited to, for example, 40 pages of standard A-4 size (297 mm.times.210 mm) documents, and it may not be possible to receive all the image signals depending on the amount of documents. Increasing the image memory capacity would involve increasing the size of the apparatus.